The present invention is in the field of semiconductor manufacturing and specifically relates to an apparatus for acquiring, holding, and releasing a semiconductor wafer attendant to a polishing process. A typical wafer is several inches in diameter and about 680 microns thick; one micron is 1 millionth of a meter.
The polishing process is carried out by a sophisticated, numerically-controlled machine that eliminates the need for intervention by the human operator of the machine.
A part of the polishing machine called the carrier remains positioned over the wafer and presses the wafer downwardly against a flat rotating polishing surface. In a typical polishing machine, the movement of the carrier is programmed to acquire a wafer from a first station, to transport the wafer to a polishing surface, to drive the wafer across the rotating polishing surface, to transport the wafer from the polishing surface to a second station, and to release the wafer at the second station. In the present application, the focus is on those parts of the apparatus that are used to acquire the wafer, to hold it during transport, and to release the wafer.